3:17 AM
by A Beautiful Beast
Summary: It's finally sunk in, but Simmons just can't sleep.


**Spoilers for F.Z.Z.T. **

**I'm still in hysterics because of FitzSimmons, and I needed to write _something _to help with these intense feels. Listed as a pairing but under the friendship category because while this can be read as either, it's more about friendship than romance. **

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For Simmons, it happens in the dead of night. Three seventeen a.m., to be precise. She's awake for seemingly no reason at all, her eyes trying to adjust to the lack of light in the room, when she's suddenly struck by the fact that she nearly died today.

It hits her hard and fast, like a brick wall or a sharp electric shock and she's left trembling, listening to her breath rattle in and out of her chest as she fights to calm down.

_You nearly died, Jemma,_ says her mind.

_You jumped out of an airplane from thousands of feet high. _

_Ward jumped out of the plane after you. If he had not've caught you and given you the anti-serum, you'd be dead, your body sinking down to the bottom of the Atlantic. _

_You nearly got your entire team killed. _

_You nearly got Fitz killed. _

All she can think about is the wind, the way the world seem to halt momentarily to watch her as she fell, air billowing around her like a giant pillow as she tumbled toward the ocean. In the grand scope of things, she is so insignificant; just another drop in a vast, endless wave.

Hands shaking, Simmons reaches for her phone.

_Help. _

She can barely hit send. She feels so pathetic.

_Please. _

After the small device beeps, a _Message Sent_ note appearing on her screen, Simmons can only roll onto her side, clutching the phone to her chest.

There's a knock at the door exactly one minute and thirty-two seconds later. She mumbles something that might sound like "come in," and the door swings open with a gentle whoosh.

"Simmons?" Fitz's whisper is worried as he makes his way over to her side.

Stretching out, Simmons reaches for him, pulling him into the bed and wrapping herself around him.

"Jemma . . ." He trails off as she tucks her head underneath his chin, and he can feel her hands shaking from where they're knotted in his shirt.

It's strange. She feels so small, so fragile despite her earlier courage (jumping off a bloody airplane! Honestly). Sliding an arm around her waist, Fitz pulls her closer, letting her legs tangle with his.

After minutes of simply laying there, listening to each other's breaths—one steady, one shuddering—Fitz breaks the silence.

"I thought I was gonna lose you for a second." He unconsciously tightens his grip on her, feeling her relax slightly as their bodies mould together.

She huffs a nervous breath of laughter into his neck. "Me too. Remind me never to take up skydiving." Her voice is rough, scratchy and cracked as if she's crying. Has she been crying? She can't remember.

Simmons can feel Fitz swallow before he speaks again, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. "Don't do that again, okay? I mean it." His heart rate picks up gently as he lowers his head, mumbling into her hair. "You scared me. 'Sides, I don't think I'd last very long out here without you."

She smiles at the admission, pressing herself closer to him. "You'd have to get someone else to tie your ties for you. Then the whole team would know your secret: Leo Fitz, one of the smartest people on this plane and perhaps even the planet, cannot fix his own tie into a simple knot." A laugh trickles out from her lips as she squeezes the shirt balled up in her fists a little tighter.

Silence falls over them again and Fitz settles his head over hers, feeling her chest rise and fall against his. Simmons listens to his heartbeat, the steady tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump that, like a one-note lullaby, soothes her mind and pulls her gently under the blanket of sleep.

Fitz mumbles something into her hair before she drifts off, but she hasn't the energy to be shocked or to ask him to repeat it.

Instead a smile finds its way onto her face, and with her eyes shut and mind already beginning to wander into dream-haze, she responds. "Love you too, Leo."

(Later, in the morning when the day begins to dawn and sunlight spills into the room, the door will open unbeknownst to the two sleeping scientists. Skye will peek into their room, mouthing a silent "Yes!" and turning to Agent Ward, who will roll his eyes but reach into his pocket for a twenty.)

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**Fitz's face after she fell though. Also Jemma kissing him. Feels will be the death of me, I swear. **

**Review? :)**


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